At dinner last night a few drops of rain were threatening to dampen things down in Mirboo North, but nothing came of it until one thirty in the morning when most of us were probably woken up by a calamitous crack of thunder.

As you do at that hour of the morning, I checked the Bureau of Meteorology's radar page and saw a pretty intense looking storm heading right for us.

And that's exactly what happened for the next hour or so as various storms moved overhead bringing varying amounts of rain and plenty of lightning and thunder.

I spent a good part of the night lying in my tent counting the gaps between the flashes and the crashes, but luckily, despite a couple of serious lashings, there didn't seem to be too much in the way of rainfall although I did see a few people emerging from their tents and wringing out assorted wet items this morning.

In any case no-one seemed to be interested in sleeping - by six a.m. it seemed the entire camp site had already lined up for breakfast, no doubt keen to get on the road for what was the longest day of riding in this year's Great Victorian Bike Ride.

And what a mixed day it was...

The first part of the ride was very similar to the scenery we've been experiencing for the past few days - more rolling hills, more green lushness, and more cows. Lots of cows.

After a series of great downhills (some of the best we've had this trip) the road became considerably flatter and straighter as we headed to the coast.

A boardwalk behind the lunch area at Inverloch allowed people to see the beach, and we saw plenty more of it as we took the coast road along to Cape Paterson before heading up to Wonthaggi and Dalyston for the last rest stop before San Remo.

The coast was quite beautiful, but by this time the wind had picked up and was pretty much in our faces all the way to the camp site, making it a slow ride.

Perhaps unavoidably we were also riding on the highway for a long time, and maybe because we've been away from traffic for a while it felt a little exposed having a constant stream of cars and trucks rushing past for most of the last part of the ride.

The day wasn't without a couple of spills as well - early on I went past a school group who were dealing with a student who'd come off a bike, and a little later another rider apparently went over her handlebars and hit the road - she possibly hit a bike part which fell off the bike in front of her.

She had to be airlifted to Melbourne but we understand is OK.

Given the long distance of 108 kilometers and the headwinds, riders have been slowly trickling into camp all afternoon - it was the first time this week I haven't had to queue for a shower!

Day nine brings this year's Great Vic to an end with a ride around Phillip Island - it'll be good to head home and enjoy the comforts of roomy showers and soft beds, but there's always that bit of regret at the ride coming to an end.

It's easy to get used to the mobile community of the Great Vic and forget about the real world, but that's obviously a big part of what it's all about, and that's what keeps bringing us back.